Daily Devotionals

Proverbs 9:10"The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding."

The wisdom literatures are very powerful literatures to read. They teach us about how to gain wisdom, both with God and with people. In Luke 2:52 we read, "And Jesus increased in wisdom (in broad and full understanding) and in stature and years, and in favor with God and man." So since Jesus had to grow in wisdom and favor, so do we. As we grow in wisdom and favor, we should teach our children how to grow in wisdom and favor as well.

The Book of Proverbs is an excellent tool for that. Here in this book, we often find many different statements about wisdom. I encourage you to read through the entire Book of Proverbs, one chapter a day, everyday for a month. Even reading through the book with your children is a tremendous blessing as well. The words you'll be reading are seeds, which will be planted into the hearts of your children. Those seeds will produce fruit. We all want to be fruitful. We all want to be wise and mighty in spirit. This is how we do it.

Verse 10a says, "The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning (the chief and choice part) of Wisdom…" So when you fear God, you will gain wisdom. Wisdom is not gained by any other way. It isn't even gained by human learning, even though human learning is very important in our lives. There are some very well educated people who are in high positions in life, but who aren't very wise. For example, some of them may use drugs, drink alcohol, engage in adultery, squander their money, gamble, etc. There are doctors who know the effects of smoking and yet they are smokers themselves. So even though education is very important for success in life, it's not what will bring you wisdom.

Wisdom can only come to us through a personal relationship with God. That's why we need to nurture and feed our spirits with the things of God. We have to reverentially and worshipfully fear the Lord. This fear isn't the same as being frightful. Fearing God means respecting Him. Because you respect God, you won't do certain things that are displeasing to Him; instead you'll do the things that are pleasing to Him. That fear of God is the beginning, the chief and choice part, of wisdom.

Then the rest of verse 10 says, "and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight and understanding." After wisdom, the other two important things that we need to have are insight and understanding. Insight means that you see, or perceive the inside of a situation or the way it is. Understanding in Hebrew sense means to have the ability to distinguish between two things, like evil and god for example. So how do we gain these two things? By the knowledge of the Holy One! This knowledge is actually an experiential knowledge. It's the same word that Jesus uses in John 17:3, "And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent." So that's the experiential knowledge that brings eternal life into our lives. That's the experiential knowledge that will bring insight and understanding into our lives as we read her in the Book of Proverbs.

So having reverential and worshipful fear of the Lord and having experiential knowledge of the Holy One will bring you wisdom, insight and understanding. But all those things come from having a personal relationship with God. So if you want to have wisdom and if you want to have insight and understanding, then you must fear the Lord and know Him personally. When you know God personally, then you'll know what pleases Him. When you fear God, then you'll obey Him. And when you do all of that, then you'll have wisdom, insight, and understanding.